Brown, an entertainer from Lancaster, Pa., has been bringing Django, his Capuchin monkey, to the Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife for more than a decade. He was there again last weekend, taking up his usual location near the lake stage.

At age 68, he still keeps a busy travel schedule, and he has been coming to the Newport News festival long enough that people know where to find him. Brown and Django can work for an hour and entertain dozens of festivalgoers, all without ever moving more than 10 feet.

Opening a bottle of water, Brown handed it to Django and watched her take a few gulps. "She prefers Yuengling," he tells the gathered crowd with a grin. When Django is finished, she hands the bottle to Brown and he sips from it as well.

This is an act that has been together for 20 years now. Brown, 68, does a Vaudeville-style show involving music, magic and jokes. He has been doing the act for his entire adult life. He first thought of adding a tiny partner about 40 years ago while working at an Italian heritage festival in Clarksburg, W.Va.

"There was an old organ grinder there working with a monkey," Brown said. "The guy must have been 80. I saw how much fun the guy was having with the monkey, and how much fun the audience was having with the monkey."

The monkey was collecting quarters from festivalgoers. A lot of quarters.

Brown recalled: "I laughingly said to myself, 'When you get too old to do what you do, there's your pension plan.' It got to be a big joke around the house with the kids: 'Har har, when Dad gets to be an old guy he's gonna get a monkey, har har.' "

At some point, the family joke became serious. Brown bought Django when she was a baby. She is 21 years old now and still going strong. She has some serious fans. One man travels from Philadelphia to Newport News each fall to see Django at the festival.

Each year at the festival, Brown spends part of his time entertaining the crowd by walking on enormous stilts and part of his time doing his stage show. In between, he and Django work the crowd in matching multi-colored outfits.

Watching the crowd, it's hard to tell who enjoys Django more, the young children who interact with her, or the parents who giddily use their cell phones to snap photos and shoot video.

Charles Parsons of Newport News could hardly contain himself as he looked at the photos he had taken of his 7-year-old daughter Casey shaking hands with Django and feeding a piece of popcorn to the monkey.

"That is just the most amazing animal," Parsons said. "Look at the expressions on her face. The way she plays with the kids, she's almost human."

Brown and Django worked the fall festival for two days last weekend. The crowd kept them busy.

And Brown vowed to keep coming back.

"I really love coming here each year," Brown said. "That's why we keep making the drive from Pennsylvania – to see these people. I've had ladies come up and take pictures of their daughters with Django, and they say they wanted it because they have pictures of themselves with Django when they were kids. How can you beat that?"